Controlling the GUI

A simple way to perform basic GUI functions is to use the /GUI command. You can execute this command through the input-box, or by calling xchat_command(ph, "GUI .....");.

GUI ATTACH	Same function as "Attach Window" in the HexChat menu (new for 2.6.2).
GUI DETACH	Same function as "Detach Tab" in the HexChat menu (new for 2.6.2).
GUI APPLY	Similar to clicking OK in the settings window. Execute this after /SET to activate GUI changes (new for 2.8.0)
GUI COLOR n	Change the tab color of the current context, where n is a number from 0 to 3.
GUI FOCUS	Focus the current window or tab.
GUI FLASH	Flash the taskbar button. It will flash only if the window isn't focused and will stop when it is focused by the user.
GUI HIDE	Hide the main HexChat window completely (this is used by the Systray plugin).
GUI ICONIFY	Iconify (minimize to taskbar) the current HexChat window.
GUI MSGBOX text	Displays a asynchronous message box with your text (new for 2.4.5).
GUI SHOW	Show the main HexChat window (if currently hidden).

Note, the FLASH, ICONIFY and COLOR args were added in xchat 2.0.8, they will not work with previous versions.

	MENU [-eX] [-i<ICONFILE>] [-k<mod>,<key>] [-m] [-pX] [-rX,group] [-tX] {ADD|DEL} <path> [command] [unselect command]

	MENU -p5 ADD FServe
	MENU ADD "FServe/Show File List" "fs list"
	MENU ADD FServe/-
	MENU -k4,101 -t1 ADD "FServe/Enabled" "fs on" "fs off"
	MENU -e0 ADD "FServe/Do Something" "fs action"

-eX	Set enable flag to X. -e0 for disable, -e1 for enable. This lets you create a disabled (shaded) item.
-iFILE	Use an icon filename FILE (new for 2.8.0). Not supported for toggles or radio items.
-k<mod>,<key>	Specify a keyboard shortcut. "mod" is the modifier which is a bitwise OR of: 1-SHIFT 4-CTRL 8-ALT in decimal. "key" is the key value in decimal, e.g. -k5,101 would specify SHIFT-CTRL-E.
-m	Specify that this label should be treated as Pango Markup language. Since forward slash ("/") is already used in menu paths, you should replace closing tags with an ASCII 003 instead e.g.: xchat_command(ph, "MENU -m ADD \"<b>Bold Menu<\003b>\""); (new for 2.6.6).
-pX	Specify a menu item's position number. e.g. -p5 will cause the item to be inserted in the 5th place. New for 2.8.0: If the position is a negative number, it will be used as an offset from the bottom/right-most item.
-rX,group	Specify a radio menu item, with initial state X and a group name (new for 2.8.0). The group name should be the exact label of another menu item (without the path) that this item will be grouped with. For radio items, only a select command will be executed (no unselect command).
-tX	Specify a toggle menu item with an initial state. -t0 for an "unticked" item and -t1 for a "ticked" item.

	MENU ADD "Settings/Sub Menu"
	MENU -t0 ADD "Settings/Sub Menu/My Setting" myseton mysetoff

	MENU ADD "Language"
	MENU -r1,"English" ADD "Language/English" cmd1
	MENU -r0,"English" ADD "Language/Spanish" cmd2
	MENU -r0,"English" ADD "Language/German" cmd3

Root Name	Menu
$TAB	Tab menu (right click a channel/query tab or treeview row)
$TRAY	System Tray menu
$URL	URL link menu
$NICK	Userlist nick-name popup menu
$CHAN	Menu when clicking a channel in the text area (since 2.8.4)

	Example: MENU -p0 ADD "$TAB/Cycle Channel" cycle

 Usage: 
 TRAY -f <timeout> <file1> [<file2>] Flash tray between two icons. Leave off file2 to use default HexChat icon.
 TRAY -f <filename>                  Set tray to a fixed icon.
 TRAY -i <number>                    Flash tray with an internal icon.
                                     2=Message 5=Highlight 8=Private 11=File
 TRAY -t <text>                      Set the tray tooltip.
 TRAY -b <title> <text>              Set the tray balloon.
                                     Supported on Windows from 2.8.1 and 2.8.2 on Linux (libnotify required on Linux).

Handling UTF-8/Unicode strings

The HexChat plugin API specifies that strings passed to and from HexChat must be encoded in UTF-8.

What does this mean for the plugin programmer? You just have to be a little careful when passing strings obtained from IRC to system calls. For example, if you're writing a file-server bot, someone might message you a filename. Can you pass this filename directly to open()? Maybe! If you're lazy... The correct thing to do is to convert the string to "system locale encoding", otherwise your plugin will fail on non-ascii characters.

Here are examples on how to do this conversion on Unix and Windows. In this example, someone will CTCP you the message "SHOWFILE <filename>".

static int ctcp_cb(char *word[], char *word_eol[], void *userdata)
{
	if(strcmp(word[1], "SHOWFILE") == 0)
	{
		get_file_name(nick, word[2]);
	}

	return XCHAT_EAT_XCHAT;
}

static void get_file_name(char *nick, char *fname)
{
	char buf[256];
	FILE *fp;

	/* the fname is in UTF-8, because it came from the HexChat API */

	wchar_t wide_name[MAX_PATH];

	/* convert UTF-8 to WIDECHARs (aka UTF-16LE) */
	if (MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, fname, -1, wide_name, MAX_PATH) < 1)
		return;

	/* now we have WIDECHARs, so we can _wopen() or CreateFileW(). */
	/* _wfopen actually requires NT4, Win2000, XP or newer. */
	fp = _wfopen(wide_name, "r");

	char *loc_name;

	/* convert UTF-8 to System Encoding */
	loc_name = g_filename_from_utf8(fname, -1, 0, 0, 0);
	if(!loc_name)
		return;

	/* now open using the system's encoding */
	fp = fopen(loc_name, "r");
	g_free(loc_name);

	if (fp)
	{
		while (fgets (buf, sizeof(buf), fp))
		{
			/* send every line to the user that requested it */
			xchat_commandf (ph, "QUOTE NOTICE %s :%s", nick, buf);
		}
		fclose (fp);
	}
}

Functions

 xchat_hook_command() 

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
name: Name of the command (without the forward slash).
pri: Priority of this command. Use XCHAT_PRI_NORM.
callb: Callback function. This will be called when the user executes the given command name.
help_text: String of text to display when the user executes /help for this command. May be NULL if you're lazy.
userdata: Pointer passed to the callback function.

static int onotice_cb(char *word[], char *word_eol[], void *userdata)
{
	if(word_eol[2][0] == 0)
	{
		xchat_printf(ph, "Second arg must be the message!\n");
		return XCHAT_EAT_ALL;
	}

	xchat_commandf(ph, "NOTICE @%s :%s", xchat_get_info(ph, "channel"), word_eol[2]);
	return XCHAT_EAT_ALL;
}

xchat_hook_command(ph, "ONOTICE", XCHAT_PRI_NORM, onotice_cb,
                   "Usage: ONOTICE <message> Sends a notice to all ops", NULL);

 xchat_hook_fd() 

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
fd: The file descriptor or socket.
flags: One or more of XCHAT_FD_READ, XCHAT_FD_WRITE, XCHAT_FD_EXCEPTION, XCHAT_FD_NOTSOCKET. Use bitwise OR to combine them. XCHAT_FD_NOTSOCKET tells HexChat that the provided fd is not a socket, but a "MSVCRT.DLL" pipe.
callb: Callback function. This will be called when the socket is available for reading/writing or exception (depending on your chosen flags)
userdata: Pointer passed to the callback function.

 xchat_hook_print() 

"Open Context" - Called when a new xchat_context is created.
"Close Context" - Called when a xchat_context pointer is closed.
"Focus Tab" - Called when a tab is brought to front.
"Focus Window" - Called a toplevel window is focused, or the main tab-window is focused by the window manager.
"DCC Chat Text" - Called when some text from a DCC Chat arrives. It provides these elements in the word[] array:

word[1] Address
word[2] Port
word[3] Nick
word[4] The Message

"Key Press" - Called when some keys are pressed in the input-box (since 2.4.2). It provides these elements in the word[] array:

word[1] Key Value
word[2] State Bitfield (shift, capslock, alt)
word[3] String version of the key
word[4] Length of the string (may be 0 for unprintable keys)

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
name: Name of the print event (as in Edit Event Texts Window).
pri: Priority of this command. Use XCHAT_PRI_NORM.
callb: Callback function. This will be called when this event name is printed.
userdata: Pointer passed to the callback function.

static int youpart_cb(char *word[], void *userdata)
{
	xchat_printf(ph, "You have left channel %s\n", word[3]);
	return XCHAT_EAT_XCHAT;	/* dont let HexChat do its normal printing */
}

xchat_hook_print(ph, "You Part", XCHAT_PRI_NORM, youpart_cb, NULL);

 xchat_hook_server() 

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
name: Name of the server event.
pri: Priority of this command. Use XCHAT_PRI_NORM.
callb: Callback function. This will be called when this event is received from the server.
userdata: Pointer passed to the callback function.

static int kick_cb(char *word[], char *word_eol[], void *userdata)
{
	xchat_printf(ph, "%s was kicked from %s (reason=%s)\n", word[4], word[3], word_eol[5]);
	return XCHAT_EAT_NONE;	/* don't eat this event, let other plugins and HexChat see it too */
}

xchat_hook_server(ph, "KICK", XCHAT_PRI_NORM, kick_cb, NULL);

 xchat_hook_timer() 

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
timeout: Timeout in milliseconds (1000 is 1 second).
callb: Callback function. This will be called every "timeout" milliseconds.
userdata: Pointer passed to the callback function.

static xchat_hook *myhook;

static int stop_cb(char *word[], char *word_eol[], void *userdata)
{
	if(myhook != NULL)
	{
		xchat_unhook(ph, myhook);
		myhook = NULL;
		xchat_print(ph, "Timeout removed!\n");
	}

	return XCHAT_EAT_ALL;
}

static int timeout_cb(void *userdata)
{
	xchat_print(ph, "Annoying message every 5 seconds! Type /STOP to stop it.\n");
	return 1;	/* return 1 to keep the timeout going */
}

myhook = xchat_hook_timer(ph, 5000, timeout_cb, NULL);
xchat_hook_command(ph, "STOP", XCHAT_PRI_NORM, stop_cb, NULL, NULL);

 xchat_unhook() 

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
hook: Pointer to the hook, as returned by xchat_hook_*.

 xchat_command() 

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
command: Command to execute, without the forward slash "/".

 xchat_commandf() 

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
format: The format string.

 xchat_print() 

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
text: Text to print. May contain mIRC color codes.

 xchat_printf() 

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
format: The format string.

 xchat_emit_print() 

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
event_name: Text event to print.

xchat_emit_print(ph, "Channel Message", "John", "Hi there", "@", NULL);

 xchat_send_modes() (new for 2.0.9)

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
targets: Array of targets (strings). The names of people whom the action will be performed on.
ntargets: Number of elements in the array given.
modes_per_line: Maximum modes to send per line.
sign: Mode sign, '-' or '+'.
mode: Mode char, e.g. 'o' for Ops.

const char *names_to_Op[] = {"John", "Jack", "Jill"};
xchat_send_modes(ph, names_to_Op, 3, 0, '+', 'o');

 xchat_find_context() 

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
servname: Servername or NULL.
channel: Channelname or NULL.

 xchat_get_context() 

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).

 xchat_get_info() 

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
id: ID of the information you want. Currently supported IDs are (case sensitive):

away	away reason or NULL if you are not away.
channel	current channel name.
charset	character-set used in the current context (since 2.4.2).
event_text <name>	text event format string for name (since 2.8.2).
gtkwin_ptr	(GtkWindow *) (since 2.8.9).
host	real hostname of the server you connected to.
inputbox	the input-box contents, what the user has typed (since 2.4.1).
libdirfs	library directory. e.g. /usr/lib/xchat. The same directory used for auto-loading plugins (since 2.4.0).This string isn't necessarily UTF-8, but local file system encoding.
modes	channel modes, if known, or NULL (since 2.8.1).
network	current network name or NULL.
nick	your current nick name.
nickserv	nickserv password for this network or NULL (since 2.4.3).
server	current server name (what the server claims to be). NULL if you are not connected.
topic	current channel topic.
version	xchat version number.
win_ptr	native window pointer. Unix: (GtkWindow *) Win32: HWND (since 2.6.0).
win_status	window status: "active", "hidden" or "normal" (since 2.0.9).
xchatdir	xchat config directory, e.g.: /home/user/.xchat2 This string is encoded in UTF-8, which means you _should_ convert it to "locale" encoding before using functions like open() or OpenFile(). For best Unicode support on Linux, convert this string using g_filename_from_utf8 and on Windows convert this string to UTF-16LE (wide) and use OpenFileW() etc.
xchatdirfs	xchat config directory, e.g.: /home/user/.xchat2 (since 2.0.9).This string is encoded in local file system encoding, making it ideal for direct use with functions like open() or OpenFile(). For real Unicode support on Windows, it's best not to use HexChatdirfs, but HexChatdir instead.

 xchat_get_prefs() 

state_cursor	Current input-box cursor position (characters, not bytes). Since 2.4.2.
id	Unique server id. Since 2.6.1.

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
name: Setting name required.
string: Pointer-pointer which to set.
integer: Pointer to an integer to set, if setting is a Boolean or Integer type.

{
	int i;
	const char *str;

	if (xchat_get_prefs (ph, "irc_nick1", &str, &i) == 1)
	{
		xchat_printf (ph, "Current nickname setting: %s\n", str);
	}
}

 xchat_set_context() 

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
ctx: Context to change to (obtained with xchat_get_context or xchat_find_context).

 xchat_nickcmp() 

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
s1: String to compare.
s2: String to compare s1 to.

Because of IRC's scandanavian origin, the characters {}| are considered to be the lower case equivalents of the characters []\, respectively. This is a critical issue when determining the equivalence of two nicknames.

 xchat_strip() (new for 2.4.2)

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
str: String to strip.
len: Length of the string (or -1 for NULL terminated).
flags: Bit-field of flags: 0-Strip mIRC colors, 1-Strip text attributes.

{
	char *new_text;

	/* strip both colors and attributes by using the 0 and 1 bits (1 BITWISE-OR 2) */
	new_text = xchat_strip(ph, "\00312Blue\003 \002Bold!\002", -1, 1 | 2);

	if(new_text)
	{
		/* new_text should now contain only "Blue Bold!" */
		xchat_printf(ph, "%s\n", new_text);
		xchat_free(ph, new_text);
	}
}

 xchat_free() (new for 2.4.2)

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
ptr: Pointer to free.

 xchat_pluginpref_set_str() (new for 2.9.0)

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
var: Name of the setting to save.
value: String value of the the setting.

int xchat_plugin_init (xchat_plugin *plugin_handle,
			char **plugin_name,
			char **plugin_desc,
			char **plugin_version,
			char *arg)
{
	ph = plugin_handle;
	*plugin_name = "Tester Thingie";
	*plugin_desc = "Testing stuff";
	*plugin_version = "1.0";

	xchat_pluginpref_set_str (ph, "myvar1", "I want to save this string!");
	xchat_pluginpref_set_str (ph, "myvar2", "This is important, too.");

	return 1;       /* return 1 for success */
}

myvar1 = I want to save this string!
myvar2 = This is important, too.

 xchat_pluginpref_get_str() (new for 2.9.0)

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
var: Name of the setting to load.
dest: Array to save the loaded setting's string value to.

 xchat_pluginpref_set_int() (new for 2.9.0)

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
var: Name of the setting to save.
value: Decimal value of the the setting.

static int saveint_cb (char *word[], char *word_eol[], void *user_data)
{
	int buffer = atoi (word[2]);

	if (buffer > 0 && buffer < INT_MAX)
	{
		if (xchat_pluginpref_set_int (ph, "myint1", buffer))
		{
			xchat_printf (ph, "Setting successfully saved!\n");
		}
		else
		{
			xchat_printf (ph, "Error while saving!\n");
		}
	}
	else
	{
		xchat_printf (ph, "Invalid input!\n");
	}

	return XCHAT_EAT_XCHAT;
}

 xchat_pluginpref_get_int() (new for 2.9.0)

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
var: Name of the setting to load.

 xchat_pluginpref_delete() (new for 2.9.0)

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
var: Name of the setting to delete.

 xchat_pluginpref_list() (new for 2.9.0)

ph: Plugin handle (as given to xchat_plugin_init).
dest: Array to save the list to.